Worst Ending Ever (A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs))

Name: shewhoguards

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Product:	A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs)
Date:	31/05/08 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great concept, loved Gigolo Joe

Disadvantages: The ending

Artificial Intelligence skips us forward into a future where earth is so over-crowded that they are only allowed one child each, and where robots have reached a stage that they're so realistic that they can be mistaken for humans.

A human couple with a dying child are therefore not allowed to have another. When the husband's company approaches them with an offer to test-drive the first of a new line - a robot substitute child - they eagerly agree. But then their real son wakes from his coma, and when he's fighting for attention with David the robot boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) there's only one choice they can make. Much like a Christmas puppy, David is dumped in the woods.

But he's been programmed to want his mother's love, so he sets off to search for how to get that.

Haley Osment does very well in this at portraying the other-worldly feel of something not-quite-human. However, the real star of this for me was Gigolo Joe (played by Jude Law). Basically a sexbot who runs off when he discovers his client has died he befriends David, taking the "boy" under his wing. Somehow this is even more touching than David's story - David's love for his mother, after all, was only what he was programmed to feel.

So far, so good, why've I given it three stars then? Well, without wanting to give too much away, the film reaches a point where it should end. It would be a sad ending, but it would have worked fine - in fact the friend I was watching with and I sat up stretching assuming it HAD ended.

...and then they paste on the weirdest happy ending EVER. It just... it doesn't fit. I can only imagine someone high up saw it and said "No, this is a kid's film, we can't make the kiddies cry" and tried to engineer a way to end in a happy way. It's really unfortunate, because it ruins what WAS a decent film.

It's available for £2.97 from Amazon. Stop ten minutes before the end and you'll love it.

Summary: Sadly they ruined a good film with a bad ending